Nbn Hybrid Power Cubes will be installed throughout the Bundaberg Region to increase the resilience of the telecommunications network during natural disasters.
Ten power cubes are set to be installed over the coming months and will work as a ‘back-up' to nbn Fixed Wireless Towers that become compromised during wild weather or emergency events.
Bundaberg Regional Council has received $1,342,000 for the installation of the specialised equipment through the Bushfire Resilience Hybrid Power Cube Project as part of the Federal Government's Black Summer Bushfire Grant.
Local Disaster Management Group Chair Mayor Jack Dempsey said during past natural disaster events, Council had worked with nbn teams to keep impacted communities connected using interim solutions while offline services were restored.
He said by having the advantage of the nbn Hybrid Power Cubes, connectivity would be automatically “backed-up” without requiring ongoing maintenance from crews.
“In emergency scenarios where grid power often becomes unavailable, such as a bushfire, the cube will utilise redundancy power to ensure the community stays connected,” he said.
“These cubes will be proactively deployed alongside nbn fixed wireless network towers in areas which are often either impacted or at high risk of being impacted by disaster events.
“This innovative technology will work to immediately restore power to an impacted tower, allowing broadband services to continue.”
Nbn Queensland's Kylie Lindsay said the cubes would see the average outage time reduced from 44 hours to near zero.
“The power cubes keep the power on for the local nbn™ Fixed Wireless network during an emergency power loss.”
The nbn Hybrid Power Cube is environmentally friendly and sustainable, using solar panels to generate power and recharge its battery.
When the power is insufficient the equipment then relies on a backup battery and can also switch to diesel to operate.
Each cube generates lower emissions and has smoother operational and running costs compared to conventional generators, making them a better solution during natural disasters and outages.
The cubes are among 524 projects to be funded by the Federal Government under the Black Summer Bushfire Grant.
“Anyone that has been through a natural disaster knows how important it is to be able to communicate with loved ones and it's an important resource for emergency responders,” Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt said.
“The cubes will be deployed across the nbn fixed wireless network in areas in the Bundaberg local government area either impacted or at risk of being impacting by bushfire events.”
